Caring for orphaned children in China

1. Caring for orphaned children in China Xiaoyuan Shang, Karen R Fisher Social Policy Research Centre Seminar Series, 29 April 2014

2. Outline Chinese social policy context Alternative care principles and types Research questions and process Orphans profile Case study examples – foster care, kinship care, NGO Implications for mixed child welfare policy

3. Chinese policy context • 570,000+ orphans – 1-2 parents died or cannot be found • Extended family responsible • Ministry of Civil Affairs if no extended family • Developing, transition country • Changing values, less informal care • Government support systems only in developed areas

4. Principles of good alternative care UN Guidelines on the Alternative Care of Children (UNGACC 2009) • family based care • preserving identity • permanency • child participation in alternative care processes

5. Forms of alternative care in China Informal kinship care Foster care Adoption Family group care Residential care

6. Research questions • How many orphaned children are in China, cared for by the state or in their communities? • What are the main forms of alternative care in China? Do they provide adequate care and protection to orphaned children? • What are the living experiences of these children in different alternative care, and what role does the state, kinship care, and other parties play in fulfilling their rights? • What are the official policies for supporting these children and how are the policies changing?

7. Methods • National Census of Orphans • National Sample Survey of State Child Welfare Institutions • In-depth research sites - 39 • Questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, observation • Children, families, officials, schools, social networks, organisations

8. Research sites

9. Reasons orphaned • Illness • Accident • Natural disaster • Abandoned • Broader social policy implications

10. Age and gender of orphans by location

11. Alternative care of orphans by type

12. State child welfare institutions Hold the formal guardianship of orphans without extended family Historically cared for children in the institution. Now mixed: • Arrange adoption, foster care, family group care • Institutional care for transition, temporary, permanent, medical and disability support

13. Foster care policy changes Deinstitutionalisation • Local response to high number of orphans and financial constraints – central government funding insufficient for institutional care • Promoted as good practice by international NGOs • Child welfare goals • Changing role of the state – community, NGOs • Regulations for quality foster care (2003) Still not formalised in policy as preferable to institutional care

14. Duration in SCWI before foster care

15. Rural informal kinship care Formal and informal social contract • Grandparents required to care for orphans • Paternal and maternal uncles and aunts accept responsibility • Occasional government support – social security, education Gender bias • Responsibility more frequent for orphaned boy • Marginalisation of mother if father dies Risks to children’s rights • Losing grandparent carers • Poverty and stress in kinship care households

16. NGO children’s welfare services Range in quality and services • International, domestic • Charity, religious, social service, child rights orientations • Registered, unregistered, individual household • Institutional care, group care, foster care, adoption Government role formalising from 2013 but ambivalent • Guardianship – unregistered birth • Good practice alternative care • Regulating quality

17. Further case studies Kinship care in Autonomous Region – cultural considerations Foster mother villages Children affected by HIV – villages with unsafe injecting drug use or plasma donation

18. Social welfare responses Basic Living Security Allowance for Orphans (2010) Other household social security Land assets for rural orphans Health care – urban family responsibility; Rural Cooperative Health Care Education – 9 years free compulsory schooling

19. Implications for mixed child welfare Child welfare policy and local implementation gaps • Prevention and protection for welfare children in families • Access to education, health and disability support • Law and governance of alternative care – guardianship, registered birth • Support for extended family carers and community Formalise alternative care • Finance, quality, principles of alternative care: • family based care; preserving identity; permanency; child participation

20. Resources Shang, X., Fisher, K.R. (2013), Caring for Orphaned Children in China, Lexington Books, Lanham. Chinese social policy projects www.sprc.unsw.edu.au/research/projects/?keyword=china&simple=Search x.shang@unsw.edu.au karen.fisher@unsw.edu.au 02 9385 7800